The Bob Newhart Show - Later Appearances By Series Characters

Later Appearances By Series Characters

St. Elsewhere (1985)

Jack Riley reprised his Elliot Carlin role in 1985 for an episode of St. Elsewhere, partnered with Oliver Clark as the amnesiac John Doe Number Six. Carlin and Doe have been committed to the hospital's mental ward, where Carlin treats Doe with the same verbal abuse he directed toward Clark's "Mr. Herd" on The Bob Newhart Show. Carlin blames his insanity on an unnamed "quack in Chicago." While Oliver Clark's recurring portrayal of John Doe Number Six is essentially identical to Mr. Herd, the two are never stated to be the same individual.

Newhart (1988 and 1990)

Riley also turned up on the show Newhart in 1988, playing an unnamed character who acted very much like Mr. Carlin. This character is being treated by the same therapist in Vermont whom Dick Loudon (Bob Newhart) visits for marriage therapy. Dick feels he recognizes Riley's character but cannot place his face, whereupon the unnamed patient insults him. Echoing Carlin's statement in Boston three years earlier, the therapist apologizes for his patient, explaining that it has taken her "years to undo the damage caused by some quack in Chicago."

Later, Newhart and Pleshette reprised their roles from the show for the surreal finale of Newhart in 1990, in which it was revealed that the entire later Newhart series had been just Bob Hartley's dream. Bob and Emily are shown in either their old bedroom from the Chicago apartment, or a similarly decorated bedroom as the couple had moved out of that apartment more than a decade earlier per the Bob Newhart Show finale.

The Bob Newhart Show 19th Anniversary (1991)

The entire cast assembled for the one-hour clip show The Bob Newhart Show 19th Anniversary in 1991, which finds the show's characters in the present day. This show is set in Chicago, in the same apartment and office that Bob Hartley had in his 1970s show—the move to Oregon is never mentioned. Viewers are left to assume that either the move never actually took place or that, if it did take place, the Hartleys quickly moved back to Chicago and resumed their life there.

During the course of the show, one of the things the characters did was analyze Bob's dream. During the discussion, the Hartleys' neighbor Howard Borden (Bill Daily) recalled, "I had a dream like that once. I dreamed I was an astronaut in Florida for five years," as scenes from I Dream of Jeannie featuring Daily were shown.

Murphy Brown (1994)

Newhart played Bob Hartley once again on Murphy Brown, when he showed up at the end of the episode "Anything But Cured" (March 14, 1994) to beg Carol (Marcia Wallace reprising her role) to leave her job as Murphy's secretary and come back with him to Chicago. A running gag on Murphy Brown was Murphy's dissatisfaction with each new secretary she was assigned, with each lasting less than a day. Carol was one of only two who measured up to Murphy's standards, and each quit by the end of their respective episode for a better job – the other being Paul Reubens as Andrew J. Lansing III, who was promoted to an executive position through nepotism.

Saturday Night Live (1995)

Newhart reprised Hartley twice in the February 11, 1995 episode of Saturday Night Live. In one sketch, he appears on a satirical version of Ricki Lake, befuddled by both Ms. Lake's dysfunctional guests and Lake's armchair pop psychology. The episode ended with a repeat of Newhart’s "just a dream" scene, in which Bob Hartley again wakes up with Emily (Pleshette), and tells her that he just dreamt he had hosted SNL. Emily responds, "That show's not still on, is it?"

CBS at 75 (2002)

The "Hartleys" were also hosts for a segment of the CBS at 75 broadcast.